The Points Guy: We never accept free flights [merged TPG discussions]
Mar 7, 2016, 11:00 am
#406
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Austin, Texas
Programs: Airline nobody. Sad!
Posts: 26,062
The rumoured sale price for the site, which I was told by an industry exec, was $15m so easily seven figures.
You think seven figures is a lot but it isn't. Assuming $100 average card commission you only need 30 applications per day.
Put another way ..... TPG, on his readership numbers, would make $1m per year from Google Adsense alone if he bothered to put it up - which he doesn't. That is based on a direct extrapolation of my Adsense income to his.
You think seven figures is a lot but it isn't. Assuming $100 average card commission you only need 30 applications per day.
Put another way ..... TPG, on his readership numbers, would make $1m per year from Google Adsense alone if he bothered to put it up - which he doesn't. That is based on a direct extrapolation of my Adsense income to his.
I was saying that The Points Guy website definitely has revenue of seven figures a year (especially if sold for $15M, would indicate annual revenue ballpark figure of $1.5-2M), but I don't know if Brian makes seven figures a year himself from the website, after paying hosting fees/bandwidth/contributor payments/advertising/paid airfare for reviews/etc.
But I'm sure he does quite alright. I doubt he's out in line at Walmart or elsewhere every day doing manufactured spend just to try to get more miles. And I'm not too concerned about whether he makes $500k, $1M, or whatever per year. I'm sure he does well, and he surely has that website sale amount in his back pocket anyway.
Mar 7, 2016, 3:51 pm
#407
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA | CLT, formerly LHR & AMS (with just a bit of PSP)
Programs: BAEC Gold, Hilton Diamond, BonVoy Titanium, (soon former) Caesars7*, (former) Wynn Black, HR "Icon"
Posts: 8,172
Signing up for (many) new credit cards does not force someone into bankruptcy. I know many that never defer payments, always pay in full. In order to be effective at churning (and this game), you can't carry balances anyway. That would hurt your utilisation and make it more difficult to keep getting more cards.
Mar 7, 2016, 11:16 pm
#408
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Programs: IAMAW Local 368/HAL 2 Star Mariner
Posts: 740
Payments can range based on the terms of the contract. For example, paying the minimum balance every month is approximately 50-80% interest (even worse in some cases) and 50-20% actually taken off the balance.
The credit card industry rakes in billions (trillions?) in interest every year, people who pay the balance in full every month are not in the majority. That is why it is big business. Credit cards would have been dead long ago if the majority of the customers paid in full every month. But they don't, because satisfying instant gratification is lucrative.
-LPDAL
The credit card industry rakes in billions (trillions?) in interest every year, people who pay the balance in full every month are not in the majority. That is why it is big business. Credit cards would have been dead long ago if the majority of the customers paid in full every month. But they don't, because satisfying instant gratification is lucrative.
-LPDAL
Last edited by LPDAL; Mar 7, 2016 at 11:25 pm
Mar 9, 2016, 9:38 am
#409
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SAN
Programs: Lots of faux metal
Posts: 6,425
Payments can range based on the terms of the contract. For example, paying the minimum balance every month is approximately 50-80% interest (even worse in some cases) and 50-20% actually taken off the balance.
The credit card industry rakes in billions (trillions?) in interest every year, people who pay the balance in full every month are not in the majority. That is why it is big business. Credit cards would have been dead long ago if the majority of the customers paid in full every month. But they don't, because satisfying instant gratification is lucrative.
-LPDAL
The credit card industry rakes in billions (trillions?) in interest every year, people who pay the balance in full every month are not in the majority. That is why it is big business. Credit cards would have been dead long ago if the majority of the customers paid in full every month. But they don't, because satisfying instant gratification is lucrative.
-LPDAL
Mar 9, 2016, 1:45 pm
#410
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: TXL
Posts: 19
It's a semi serious question though: Can they be held responsible for their services as a 'credit card broker'? I've seen that Raffles from headforpoints.com has a disclaimer stating that he's technically acting as a credit card broker. (Of course it's a UK based site.)
A lot of sites have some sort of credit score guide which often includes basic advice on credit card utilisation (pay your balance in full every month etc.) and I'm not convinced they're doing it because they care.
Mar 9, 2016, 2:19 pm
#411
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,326
Wouldn't someone have sued him by now if a large chunk of his readers were in need of a bankruptcy lawyer?
It's a semi serious question though: Can they be held responsible for their services as a 'credit card broker'? I've seen that Raffles from headforpoints.com has a disclaimer stating that he's technically acting as a credit card broker. (Of course it's a UK based site.)
A lot of sites have some sort of credit score guide which often includes basic advice on credit card utilisation (pay your balance in full every month etc.) and I'm not convinced they're doing it because they care.
It's a semi serious question though: Can they be held responsible for their services as a 'credit card broker'? I've seen that Raffles from headforpoints.com has a disclaimer stating that he's technically acting as a credit card broker. (Of course it's a UK based site.)
A lot of sites have some sort of credit score guide which often includes basic advice on credit card utilisation (pay your balance in full every month etc.) and I'm not convinced they're doing it because they care.
Mar 9, 2016, 2:46 pm
#412
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 8,460
Mar 9, 2016, 6:21 pm
#413
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,326
He would not be sued in his individual capacity, but as an employee of Bankrate. (Director's insurance is irrelevant since he's not a Director of Bankrate.) Bankrate has in-house counsel, and can afford representation for frivolous litigation.
Note that the threat of a case being a "class action" isn't very meaningful here. At the stage at which a case with no legal basis would be dismissed, the costs are the same between a class action and an individual one.
Last edited by Adam1222; Mar 9, 2016 at 6:35 pm
Mar 9, 2016, 10:38 pm
#415
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,738
His site is for newbies... and the cards newbies are interested in are usually different flavors offered by Chase.
Mar 10, 2016, 4:08 am
#416
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 677
Out of curiosity, I had looked at his youtube video yesterday and it only had 500 views. Today, not 24 hours later, it has 45,000 views. How much is he paying in advertising to get those views???
With Youtube showing views publicly, it is probably very important to him to get those up if he wants to gain the interest of a network, would that be correct?
With Youtube showing views publicly, it is probably very important to him to get those up if he wants to gain the interest of a network, would that be correct?
Mar 10, 2016, 8:21 am
#417
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Programs: IAMAW Local 368/HAL 2 Star Mariner
Posts: 740
I can't imagine someone going into court and blaming TPG because they maxed out their credit card that Brian's website suggested they sign up for and are now unable to afford payments on. Again, that doesn't make any sense at all.
-LPDAL
Mar 10, 2016, 9:31 am
#418
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,626
Out of curiosity, I had looked at his youtube video yesterday and it only had 500 views. Today, not 24 hours later, it has 45,000 views. How much is he paying in advertising to get those views???
With Youtube showing views publicly, it is probably very important to him to get those up if he wants to gain the interest of a network, would that be correct?
With Youtube showing views publicly, it is probably very important to him to get those up if he wants to gain the interest of a network, would that be correct?
Mar 10, 2016, 10:47 am
#420
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,738
Out of curiosity, I had looked at his youtube video yesterday and it only had 500 views. Today, not 24 hours later, it has 45,000 views. How much is he paying in advertising to get those views???
With Youtube showing views publicly, it is probably very important to him to get those up if he wants to gain the interest of a network, would that be correct?
With Youtube showing views publicly, it is probably very important to him to get those up if he wants to gain the interest of a network, would that be correct?